Minimalised Mobility: Urbanising Protestant Congregations in Contemporary China

While the growing literature on Christianity in contemporary China is beginning to expand our understanding of Protestantism in an urban context, there is a dearth of analysis on the urbanising context and how congregations respond to it. This paper attempts to begin to address some of these issues by analysing Protestant congregations in a mid-sized Chinese city (Huanghaicheng). This paper argues that in an urbanised context, a more formal official religious regulatory framework is established. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper identifies local factors as well as factors from beyond Huanghaicheng which help to shape Protestant perceptions of the regulatory framework. Further, this paper argues that religious specialists and lay believers alike are compelled to develop new strategies in order to negotiate this regulatory framework. One of the patterns emerging from this negotiation process is a more minimalist and mobile approach to officially-recognised sites for religious activity (zongjiao huodong changsuo).